“Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting.” 
~ Author Unknown

Even though we have no control over whether or not (or when) we become grandparents…those babies can be a dream-come-true. As they grow, we may even begin to have special dreams for each of our grandchildren.

As grandparents, we have a lot of history and know how to do many things. In fact, we have neural connections in our brains that enable us to develop habits of doing repetitive  things easily. They are essential to our daily lives or it would take a lot of time just to tie our shoes. 

We may think our role is to pass on that knowledge and experience to our grandchildren. While that’s partially true, there’s something more. We also have our hearts – our inner wisdom that comes up with something unexpected and maybe a little crazy-sounding. Perhaps it is something we’ve dreamed of doing but have never done. It may be scary and we may also feel our resistance. But, it might also be exciting.

You can encourage this kind of action in several ways:

• There’s a saying: fear is excitement that forgot to breathe.  So first – BREATHE. 
• Think of something you’ve considered doing for yourself or with your grandchildren but just haven’t done yet. Ask yourself, what would happen if I did x? If the answer isn’t something terrible, then DO IT! And see what happens. 
• You can do this very lightheartedly. When you get dressed in the morning, if you always put your left leg in your pants first, start with the right leg, instead. Sound silly? Yes. Silly often equals fun.  You can also make that a game with your grandchildren, in ways that fit their ages.
• We used to play a game with our young sons. They would take turns as we drove, telling us which way to go when we came to a cross street. Straight or left or right? We found ourselves in areas of our town we had never seen before. They enjoyed the chance to “be in charge”. There were also moments when I got to notice how much I prefer being in control!

This provides a sense of adventure in our lives, a freshness in our approach…a way of being like young grandchildren, for whom life is an adventure of learning many new things, many new discoveries. 

The young know that there’s a lot they don’t know. As we get older, we sometimes forget how much there is to discover. It’s available, with just a little stretch of our imaginations and willingness to take a chance. We can live the dreams we know about and continually discover new ones!

Thanks for welcoming me to 50Fabulous and taking the time to read my column. I’m delighted to start this conversation with you and hope you will send in your comments. I’d love to hear from you.